Is the grass greener on the other side for two former Carolina Panthers?
CBS Sports NFL staff writer Garrett Podell recently named 10 veterans who are positioned for career years in the upcoming 2023 campaign. Among his candidates was a pair of familiar names, starting with new Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield.
Podell writes:
If there’s going to be any quarterback who follows in Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith’s 2022 footsteps to go from career castoff to a solid starting quarterback/potential Pro Bowler in 2023, it’s new Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield. Mayfield enters the upcoming season with many parallels to Smith’s career, one of which is being on his fourth team while facing what’s likely his final chance to be considered an NFL starter.
One key factor in Smith’s 2022 resurgence is he landed in an offense with two Pro Bowl receivers in DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. Mayfield is in a similar situation with the ability to throw to four-time Pro Bowl wideout Mike Evans as well as Pro Bowl receiver Chris Godwin. In a wide-open NFC South, Mayfield is in a position to break out for the best year of his career.
That’d be pretty timely considering the former No. 1 overall is coming off the worst year of his career. After being released by the Panthers following seven games—in which he posted lows in completion percentage (57.8), touchdown rate (2.9 percent) and yards per attempt (6.4)—he finished out 2022 with the Los Angeles Rams.
He threw just 10 touchdowns this past season, one of which ended up in the hands of the next old friend on Podell’s list—Chicago Bears wide receiver DJ Moore:
D.J. Moore has plenty of ability, as indicated by his three consecutive seasons of 1,000 or more receiving yards from 2019-2021 while catching passes from a broken-down Cam Newton, Kyle Allen, Will Grier, Teddy Bridgewater, P.J. Walker and Sam Darnold. He’s always been a big-play threat as Moore’s 14.3 yards per catch since entering the league in 2018 is the fourth most in the NFL among 32 players with at least 300 catches in that span, trailing only star wide receivers Mike Evans (15.6), Justin Jefferson (14.9) and seven-time Pro Bowler Julio Jones (14.4).
Now paired with the most dynamic quarterback of the 26-year-old receiver’s five-year career in Bears dual-threat Justin Fields, Moore could break the 1,200 receiving yards threshold as well as the double-digit receiving touchdown mark in a single season for the first time in his career as the WR1 for an ascending, young passer.
2022 was the first year Moore failed to hit the 1,000-yard receiving mark since his rookie campaign. But he did post a career-high seven scores.
Moore, of course, was traded to Chicago in the haul for this year’s first overall pick—one the Panthers eventually used on quarterback Bryce Young. And now, he may be primed to haul in quite a few passes—perhaps even at the expense of the Panthers—for his new squad.
